The third and final stage is gender consistency. The child is aware that gender remains fixed over time and in different situations. This usually occurs between the ages of 6 and 7.
Evidence for gender labelling comes from Thompson (1975) who showed that gender identification was more accurate in 3 years (90%) than 2 years old (76%)
Gender stability was investigated by Slaby and Frey (1975) who asked young children, ‘where you a little boy or a little girl when you were a baby?’ they also asked ‘when you grow up will you be a mummy or a daddy?’ children did not recognise that these traits were stable over time, until they were 3 or 4 years old, as Kohlberg predicted.
Evidence for gender consistency was also shown by Slaby and Frey. Those children high in gender consistency showed greater interest in same sex models. This suggests Kohlberg predicted that an increasing sense of consistency leads children to pay more attention to gender appropriate models, which was particularly true of boys. However, the kinds of questions used have been criticised since they may not be easy for young children to understand e.g. the question ‘if you have children of your own when you grow up will you be a mummy or a daddy?’ is grammatically complex. It assumes the child understands that in the context of ‘have children’ means ‘give birth to.’
McConaghy’s (1979) study showed that children in Kohlberg’s gender stability stage determined the gender of the dolls by their clothing rather than their genitalia. This suggests that they believe when the situation, e.g. clothing, changes, gender does too.
Further evidence by Monroe et al (1984) found the same stage in children from different cultures.
However, there are some flaws with this theory. For example, gender role behaviour is shown by most boys and girls by the time of their third birthday. This is several years before they have reached gender consistency, so it cannot be argued that all gender role behaviour depends on gender consistency. It seems that only a very basic understanding of gender is necessary before children learn sex role stereotypes and measures of gender consistency tell us little about how ‘sex-typed’ children are.
In addition, Kohlberg’s theory has been criticised for ignoring the effects of social influences and conditioning, as well as ignoring external factors such as reward and punishment from parents that determine early gender role behaviour.
Also, the theory describes the three stages, but doesn’t explain why they occur. Kohlberg’s theory is reductionist because it ignores psychological and social influences on gender development
